This invention relates to methods for producing foamed articles, such as seat cushions for riding lawn mowers and the like.
In one typical method for producing foamed pad seat cushions having an outer skin or coating, the skin forming material is first formed into the desired shaped on a male mandrel, placed in the molding chamber of a foaming mold, and then a foamable material for forming the pad is in introduced into the molding chamber, on top of the preformed skin, wherein it expands to the desired shape and cures to a hardened or semi-hardened condition. This method requires several manual steps and a cure time of several hours, even days in some cases. Also, because of the high pressures generated during foaming, the mold usually must be constructed from relatively high strength and expensive materials. In order to reduce fabrication costs, a method capable of rapidly curing the foamed material and requiring less expensive mold constructions is highly desirable.